The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Mario Búcaro, has assured this Wednesday «that there is no crisis» in the relations with Colombia, after the accusations of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central American country against the Colombian Defense Minister, Iván Velásquez, about his alleged participation in a corruption scheme.
«I think there is no crisis», said Búcaro, who has valued as «very cordial» the meeting he had with his Colombian counterpart, Álvaro Leyva, in the margins of the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which took place this Tuesday in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
«Cordiality and diplomacy is the best channel», stressed Búcaro, who has bet on «the normalization of bilateral relations» between the two countries after the diplomatic crisis of a few days ago, for which the ambassadors of both countries are expected to return to their respective legations.
Búcaro has advanced that «soon» Guatemala will release a «very positive» communiqué on the «cordial» and «working» long-lasting diplomatic relationship it maintains with Colombia and has suggested that the rupture of relations does not seem to have been on the country’s agenda in spite of the moments of crisis.
Finally, the Foreign Minister did not rule out the possibility of a meeting in the future between the Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei, and the Colombian President, Iván Petro, who were the protagonists of the most bitter episodes of this diplomatic crisis.
Last week, Guatemalan prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche – sanctioned by the United States for obstructing corruption cases – accused Minister Velásquez of being part of a corrupt scheme woven by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht when he was part of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.
That accusation prompted both governments to recall their respective ambassadors for consultations. The situation became tense as the days went by, with President Giammattei trying to delegitimize the Colombian by appealing to his past as a guerrilla fighter.
Petro, for his part, questioned the good faith of prosecutor Curruchiche by assuring that he was only seeking «revenge» for the actions against impunity in which Velasquez participated and that Colombia would not tolerate an attack against one of its citizens. «Our Minister of Defense respects himself, our President respects himself and we are not going to kneel the national sovereignty before a corrupt action», he stressed.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
